This week, the DHS awards $10 million in grants to help fight violence and terrorism. Read more about the latest news below!
DHS Awards $10 Million Worth in Grants
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to fight both foreign terrorist organizations as well as violent domestic extremists that threaten our democracy.
Now, they have awarded $10 million in grants to provide funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments, nonprofits, and institutions of higher education to “establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.”
The grants will prioritize countering domestic terrorism.
While terrorism and targeted violence differ in their political and ideological motives, the threats of both tend to overlap and interact with each other. DHS continues to invest in reactive and proactive measures, including traditional law enforcement and empowering communities to marginalize violent messaging.
For the Fiscal Year 2020, DHS’ Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program priorities are:
- Establishing and Enhancing Local Prevention Frameworks with an Emphasis on Threat Assessment and Management Capabilities
- Preventing Domestic Terrorism
- Developing Innovative Solutions for Preventing Targeted Violence and Terrorism
To address these goals, DHS selected 29 projects through a competitive process with 95 applicants.
The 29 that were selected will have activities in at least 15 states and D.C.
Where Do TVTP Grants Go?
TVTP Grant Program funds go towards the development of local prevention capabilities at a time when DHS is seeing an uptick in online efforts for terrorism recruitment and radicalization from a variety of sectors.
The Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Protection (OTVTP) seeks to put an end to plots against the United States from foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) like al Qaeda and ISIL, as well as domestic threats such as “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists, including white supremacist violent extremists, anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists, and others that drive terrorist violence.”
Targeted violence attacks in the United States that inflict a high degree of mass injury, destruction, or death, have occurred in schools, workplaces, large public gatherings, and other settings.
The grants awarded in 2020 will go towards:
- Youth Resilience Programs
- Civic Engagement
- Threat Assessment and Management Teams
- Recidivism Reduction and Reintegration
- Training and Awareness
- Hotlines
- Bystander Training
- Preventing Targeted Violence
- Preventing Domestic Terrorism
- Online to Offline Intervention
- Media Literacy and Online Critical Thinking
- Sector Engagement
TVTP grants are the only federal grant program dedicated to enhancing prevention capabilities in local communities.
Programs Receiving Grants
The 29 programs that are on the receiving end of grants in 2020 are:
Local Prevention Framework:
- Boston Children’s Hospital: $749,995
- Bay Area Urban Area Security Initiative: $830,242
- Chatham County, GA: $430,000
- County of Bexar, TX: $175,613
- Hawaii Department of Defense: $302,169
- Kentucky Office of Homeland Security: $250,000
- Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency: $524,547
- Simon Wiesenthal Center: $225,692
- The Citizens Crime Commission on New York City: $741,878
- University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology: $491,865
- University of Central Oklahoma: $657,281
- Utah Department of Public Safety: $205,850
Replication:
- Case Western Reserve University: $184,981
- District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency: $150,000
- Florida International University Police Department: $7,001
- Greenlight Project, Inc. – The Counter Extremism Project: $277,755
- Muflehun: $77,025
- Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Police Department: $28,994
- New York Presbyterian Hospital: $149,985
- New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services: $164,850
- Operation250: Prevention Through Education: $121,278
- Philadelphia Police Department: $43,300
- The National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices: $435,000
- Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians: $149,882
- Xavier University: $124,817
Innovation:
- American University: $568,613
- Arizona State University: $433,141
- Life After Hate Inc.: $749,996
- Muflehun: $748,250
For more information on the grants and how they will be allotted, you can visit TVTP Grants.
What are your thoughts about this? Do you agree on awarding grants to fight targeted violence and terrorism prevention? We'd love to hear from you in the comments section!
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It’s only $10 million. I think it would be better spent on contracts to neutralize the funding sources of TVTP. Let’s say, $6 mil on George Soros, and $4 mil on Bloomberg.